In recent years, the use of plastic identification ear tags in cattle and livestock of all types has become increasingly popular. The sales for 1980 in the United States alone will be in excess of 47 million units. These tags are of generally two distinct types, namely the one piece tag and the two piece tag. The one piece tag typically is made of resilient elastomeric material of the type having a laterally extensive base for receiving indicia, and a locking device which can be folded in a particular manner for passage through a slit in the ear of an animal and then unfolded to lock it in the ear. This locking device is connected by a narrow neck to the base. Typically, these tags are placed in an installation tool which has a sharp cutting edge and are either pulled or pushed through a slit formed by this cutting edge until the locking device is on the other side of the ear and is released from the tool. A typical tab of this type is shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,051. These tags have enjoyed great commercial success in that they cause minimal damage to the ear and allow for rapid healing of the incision. However, they suffer the disadvantage in that they sometimes can be caught on a fence or tree and pulled from the ear and lost whereby the identification of the animal is destroyed. Furthermore, they suffer the disadvantage in that the manipulation of the tag to place it in the tool for installing is somewhat time consuming and awkward for some individuals and is particularly difficult to handle in field conditions when the weather is extremely cold.
The other type of tag which has enjoyed increasingly great commercial success is the two piece tag. This tag typically is also made of elastomeric material and has an extensive base section bearing indicia which terminates in a narrow neck portion. The distal end of the neck portion is provided with a small reinforced opening. The second piece of the tag is a locking device having a generally flat head with a central pin or shaft extending from one side of the head and terminating in an enlarged pointed end which has a maximum diameter greater than that of the pin or shaft. To install the tag, the pointed end is driven through the ear forming an incision and is forceably passed through and streaches and reinforced opening in the neck of the panel until it is locked in place on the shaft. These tags have enjoyed great commercial success because of their extreme ease of installation and ease of mounting in an installing tool. However, they have two very serious disadvantages. The first is that they cannot automatically be released from the ear when they catch on an obstruction and therefore, can cause the ear to be badly torn and in some instances, literally split in two. The other disadvantage is that when installed, the head of the pin and the reinforced portion around the opening in the panel are compressed against opposite surfaces of the ear adjacent the wound or opening formed in the ear. This restricts the flow of blood to the injured tissue, which retards healing. Furthermore, air cannot easily reach the injured tissue. The result is often necrosis of the tissue causing it to rot away leaving a very large hole in the ear. This allows undue movement of the tag in the ear causing erosion of the tissue or in some cases the hole becomes so large that the tag completely falls out of the ear.